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Hi guys - I thought I'd make a thread for my new project. I enjoyed restoring my '96 Squire Strat so much that I fancied having a go of building a kit guitar. Love the shape of the Les Paul so thought I'd go with that shape. I wasn't a fan of the pots or the colour of the accessories that came with it and I didn't feel like they went with the colour and finish I had in mind. I bought some black accessories to replace these ones.    |
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Superb, looking forward to seeing this thing come together!
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ChrisT
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,670
Club RR Member Number: 225
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Nice work so far, looking forward to seeing updates.
On a related note, have you seen the recent Crimson guitars great guitar build off on Youtube?
Some interesting work on there.
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Nice work so far, looking forward to seeing updates. On a related note, have you seen the recent Crimson guitars great guitar build off on Youtube? Some interesting work on there. Thanks! Yeah I have seen them - the finish I'm after is inspired by one of their videos and I'm using Crimson Guitars stains and oils. They're great! |
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Lots and lots of sanding! I hate sanding but, as usual, it's worth doing well. The body had a few bits of glue on it from where they've put the binding on and some bits were a little rough looking. I've sanded the whole thing down with 240, 400, 600, and 800 grit paper. I'm going to be following a video from Crimson Guitars where they use a red water based stain first then sand it back so the red is in the grain. Then they use a blue spirit based one that then doesn't mix with the red giving it a 'Northern Lights' type shimmer. Hopefully! I'm then planning on putting a lot of coats of oil on it to get as glossy a finish as possible. I think I did 4 on the Strat to get a satin finish. I'm just going to keep going until it's saturated with oil basically.   |
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Which brings us up to date as yesterday I started to sand the red back with 400 grit paper. Turns out it still stains your hands when it's dry and powdery 😂 It took a lot more sanding than I expected. I've gone over it with 600 and 800 as well. Before I stained it a soaked it to open the pores a bit (forgot to mention in previous post). Anyway - that's where I'm up to now. Needs a bit more sanding back and I need to do the head stock, then it'll be the application of the blue stain. Hopefully the effect I'm after works! If not, I'm sure it'll still look good.       |
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So I put the blue over the top but it didn't quite look as I'd expected. I think I took too much red off it but the grain is darker and showing through a little more so I'm glad I did it. I then started oiling it but had a few more issues..   |
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The back and sides look lovely and have a great sheen to them which is good 👌
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I taped off the neck and slowly built up the paint. I was after a gloss finish on the head stock so I layered it on over a few days. Unfortunately it had the mother of all reactions!  |
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I don't seem to have any pictures of said reaction but it bubbled up like nothing I've ever seen before. I tried sanding it out but it was no good. I used Nitro Mors on it but it just wasn't coming up well at all. I admitted defeat and figured I'd move on to assembling the body to boost the mojo! I'll sort the neck later 😂
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I replaced all of the cream hardware that came with the kit with black stuff. I found a 2nd hand job lot on ebay for a tenner that included pickguard, pickup surrounds, rear switch cover and rear pot cover. I've already bought a black truss rod adjustment cover and switch plate.   |
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Hammered these bad boys home and then wished I'd rotated them so the bolts lined up nicely when wound down! I looked online and saw even I original Les Pauls don't do that so I made peace with it 😂  |
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Nov 10, 2020 13:20:24 GMT
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if you wind a long bolt though the bridge mounts you can push them out and reset them. only do it once though.
the reaction will be silicone in the wood, it sucks. sand it, sand it and sand it some more. apply a sealer then leave each layer to completely cure before the next.
normally you'd fit the hardware after you've fitted the neck so you can make sure it all lines up, the kits can be a bit hit and miss on that.
how tight is the neck pocket? you might have to shim it to get a nice snug fit.
otherwise, looking good.
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Nov 10, 2020 15:05:48 GMT
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if you wind a long bolt though the bridge mounts you can push them out and reset them. only do it once though. the reaction will be silicone in the wood, it sucks. sand it, sand it and sand it some more. apply a sealer then leave each layer to completely cure before the next. normally you'd fit the hardware after you've fitted the neck so you can make sure it all lines up, the kits can be a bit hit and miss on that. how tight is the neck pocket? you might have to shim it to get a nice snug fit. otherwise, looking good. I gave up with the neck - even though I spent hours shaping the headstock! I bought a replacement but there are a few little issues that I've been working through and will update later today. How should I shim it? The original one was tight before I oiled it and now doesn't fit at all. The new one has play on both sides |
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,004
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 10, 2020 15:50:40 GMT
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Really liking that effect you've got with the blue on the top of the body, the sunburst style effect works well  I did a kit Telecaster a few years back but I didn't have the patience/skill to do anything fancy with the paint at the time haha, I've also done a Les Paul style guitar out of random bits bought on ebay but the neck pocket on the particular body I got meant it never played quite right, it's currently with my brother to sort out as he's better at it than me  |
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Nov 10, 2020 19:08:48 GMT
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veneer normally, you can pick up small bits on ebay. glue it in to the neck pocket sides (don't touch the end of the pocket or you'll upset the scale. then sand the neck till it is a snuck fit. I had to do this to a 3/4" scale kids guitar that I turned in to a headless travel guitar. you could wobble the neck in the pocket by a good 1/2mm. 2 shims and a bit of light sanding and you'd have thought it was made by a craftsman, rather than a hairy arsed bloke in his garage. you'll have come up against the biggest issue of a kit now, that the neck and body are cut from the same templates, other necks tend to not fit, but it is fairly easy to rectify. oh, and don't finish the neck till it's in the body, as you've now found out. I do like thanos (or how ever Mr Crow spells it) blue, I used it on the last build, I liked it so much I bought an acoustic to match it (not built by me though). |
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